‘Jaws at 35,000 feet’: the flight attendant whose thriller debut sold for seven figures

TJ Newman dreamt up her terror-in-the-skies novel Falling while guarding the cockpit as the pilots took a toilet break. She reveals how she kept going through furlough and 41 rejectionsFlight attendant Torri Newman was working on the red-eye flight from Los Angeles to New York when the idea for her debut novel came to her. To be precise, she was blocking access to the cockpit, a security procedure required when pilots take a toilet break. “I was standing at the front of the airplane,” she says, “looking out at the passengers. It was dark and they were all asleep. And I had this thought, ‘All of their lives, our lives, are in the hands of the pilots.’ That’s not exactly new – but the flipside of that also came to mind. With that much power and responsibility, how vulnerable does that make a commercial pilot?”Newman, speaking via Zoom from her home in Phoenix, Arizona, was rattled. “I just couldn’t shake the thought. A few days later, I was working a different trip with a different set of pilots, and I said to the captain, ‘Hey, what would you do if your family was taken, and you were told that if you didn’t crash the plane, they would be killed?” What was his reaction? “He had no clue what he would do – the thought terrified him.”I almost gave up. But seeing two authors at a Q&A reminded my why I had to keep going Continue reading... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2021-05-04 05:00:21 UTC ]
News tagged with: #flight attendant #debut novel

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Writer scoops £10,000 book prize

Debut novelist Amy Mason, who dropped out of school at 16 and took up writing at 25, wins the Dundee International Book Prize. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2014-10-24 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Uber Debuts Taxi App in South Korea, but Is It Legal?

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[ AdWeek | 2014-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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New E-book Subscription Service Debuts in U.K.

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-23 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Ebola thriller 'The Hot Zone' is back in the spotlight

Richard Preston's book 'The Hot Zone' was published in 1994 and tells the story of Ebola appearing in a lab in Washington D.C. Now it's back on bestseller lists and it could be adapted as a TV series. Continue reading at The Christian Science Monitor

[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-22 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2014: Attendance Dips, But Modestly

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-14 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Rylance-backed book wins £5,000 prize

A debut novel whose supporters include actor Mark Rylance and Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith wins a £5,000 award given annually to "fearless" writing. Continue reading at BBC News

[ BBC News | 2014-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Vertical Inc. Debuts New Comics Line at New York Comic Con 2014

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-11 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Frankfurt Book Fair 2014: Penn Prof Lands Seven Figures for ‘Grit’

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Self-Published Books Topped 450,000 in 2013

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-10-08 00:00:00 UTC ]
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National Book Foundation selects '5 Under 35'

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[ The Christian Science Monitor | 2014-10-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Western Great Lakes: Land of 10,000 Presses

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[ Publishers Weekly | 2014-09-26 00:00:00 UTC ]
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Amazon Debuts Kindle Unlimited in the U.K.

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Bloomsbury signs debut author Lou Carter

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Italy’s Claudio Magris Wins 2014 $150,000 FIL Prize

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[ Publishing Perspectives | 2014-09-03 00:00:00 UTC ]
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The World’s Most Expensive Superman Comic Just Sold for $3.2 Million on eBay

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Kobo Debuts Waterproof E-reader

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